Baby steps: new solar cell efficiency record isn't awe-inspiring

Granted, we've no idea what it takes to really push the efficiency level of a solar cell, but we're getting pretty bored with these incremental improvements year after year. If you'll recall, the record for solar cell efficiency sat at 40.7 percent in 2006, and that was raised to an amazing 40.8 percent last August. Today, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have announced an all new milestone: 41.1 percent efficiency. According to team head Frank Dimroth, the crew is simply "elated by this breakthrough." Meanwhile, the rest of planet Earth is suddenly depressed by the thought of perishing from old age before this data point ever breaks the big five-oh.

[Via Gizmag]

[kballs Posted Jan 27th 2009 8:37PM]

No, we're going to die of old age before we see working 40% efficient panels on the market outside of NASA or military or for less than $1 million per square centimeter.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 28th 2009 10:55AM]

If you break it down, effeciency doesn't really matter. It's all about the cost to produce, hence the reason gas/car ratio doesn't matter.

If it cost $1 to produce a cell that would run our entire house, who cares how efficient it is.

So like most said, when is it going to be mass produced enough to make it cost effective? Probably not anytime in our life time.

[Darryl Posted Jan 28th 2009 1:34AM]

Aww...
:)

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 28th 2009 11:20AM]

0.3% is a pretty big leap. Although it is true that production costs must be much less before "direct" solar is a viable power solution. I say direct because there are several more viable options for harnessing solar power indirectly. Wind for example is much more cost efficient. Even hydro is an indirect usage of solar energy (What lifts the water up and redeposits it at a higher elevation?). When you get down to it, all of the sources we use for power generation is merely just solar. Even the high energy density of crude oil is just nature's chemical battery of millions of years of stored solar energy.

I'm now greenie weenie. I work for a company that makes me somewhat happy to see higher oil prices. But lets face it, the planet is solar powered, and therefore so are we.

When are we going to build that space elevator and make a massive space solar array?! C'mon NASA! The Future Is Now!